NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer - PAX 2007 Preview @ GameZone

August 27th, 2007, 06:08

This short preview put together for the Penny Arcade Expo is a general overview of the coming expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2. After discussing the developer's response to the community input, and some of the graphical content, they go on to mention some gameplay features:

There are also different planes of existence. Not only will players be able to adventure on the prime material plane, but they will be able to enter the shadow plane to fight monsters that are not visible on the prime plane… Influence will play a larger part in this game as well. The demonstration of the game showed a party system reminiscent of Baldur’s Gate. Players can be very involved with party members, building influence and even convincing them to think along your lines.

Mask of the Betrayer is a lot more story driven and there is a lot more dialogue in the game. The spell effects showed not only solid graphical elements, but also a bit of a wry sense of humor.

This continues to sound like a great game. I like that I'll be able to play through it with basically the same group of companions the whole way through, and really get to know each one of them. I like that the romance options are a dreamy Hagspawn and a bald Red Wizard. The characters sound unique, unlike the highly stereotypical Casavir and Elanee. I also like that the two romancable characters aren't the two total goody-two-shoes. I generally play CG, and I found Elanee annoying for the most part. Casavir was too emo, and like most emos, he lacked any real depth.

Heh, I sound almost like the Oblivion fanrags sounding off about Fallout 3. After saying lots of nice things about NWN2, I now criticize the game only by comparing it to OE's new game.

Badesumofu
"I like that the romance options are a dreamy Hagspawn and a bald Red Wizard"

Omg, you are sooo freaky!

Looking forward to this, just hoping Obsidian has time to finsh this one, instead of tacking on a crappy ending, since the game was being rushed out by atari "the bankrupte, omg we need cash" corperation.

— Trust me, most of the names I have been called you can't translate in any language…they're not even real words as much as a succession of violent images.

though i never finished it i thought casavir was actually the least stereotypical in the game. i'm always suprised to see how many people actually play chaotic good. i guess that's why its a game. but for me it doesn't seem very logical as i'm not sure there's to many people in the world who could be counted as either lawful evil or chaotic good. ultimately theres not too much evil you can do without breaking some laws and theres not to many chaotic deeds you could do without having "bad" repurcusions on others. still its intriguing when games try to flesh out some of these "possibilities" as even when there's only 2 choices its still better than a televesion program that gives you no choice at all.

Mostly CG here, but maybe I am confused, I have always thought of Chaotic as not being resigned to follow the law, which even in your RL comparison could describe many RL people.
Examples would be speeding, saying you have no idea how that "funny looking cigarette" got in your car, I only had 1 beer, of course I included every bit of income on my taxes, of course you look great in any color honey or no of course I wasn't looking at that girl, so not sure what you mean.

— Trust me, most of the names I have been called you can't translate in any language…they're not even real words as much as a succession of violent images.

Chaotic tends to mean that you don't live by rules, and that you do what feels right at the time. Lawful people will do what they say they are going to do, and don't betray people. For instance, I don't have any problem breaking laws I don't agree with (i.e. things like taking drugs) and I would have no problem with telling an evil person i was going to do something, and then not doing it. A Paladin, on the other hand, could not promise an evil doer that he'd let him go if he dropped his weapon, only to turn around take him into custody anyway.

Lawful characters are not nescessarily bound to follow the laws of the land. They are bound to do whatever they have pledged to do, and follow whatever rules they live by. Monks and Paladins live by strict codes. Sometimes laws just aren't right. Sometimes you might say you're going to do something and then realise it's the wrong thing to do. I like to be adaptable, and I am often spontaneous. For instance, once I found a wallet lying on the street, and I picked it up, looked through it, and then used the contents to find the owner and return it to him. I did it because it felt like the right thing to do, and because I know how much it sucks to lose your wallet. Although I was following the law, that wasn't my motivation. I think a lot of the time it can be difficult to tell the difference between LG and CG, because a CG person will very often do the same thing as an LG person, but for different reasons.

I like the extra dimension that alignment gives to a game. It helps provide some motivation and rhyme and reason to character interaction. And in NWN2, I actually enjoyed the "romance" undertones, which normally are just lame IMO.(…but that may be because the only one I had seen prior was with that whiny Brad Pitt lookalike in BG2. Ugh.)

Casovir was a bit more interesting as a character than Keldorn, but I thought they did a lot better with Bishop. For a doublecrossing bloodthirsty wastrel, he had some depth, at least when romancing my chaotic good sorceress. You could tell her inate problem with wanton slaughter made him sick, but he hung around glowering and sneering at Casovir and making himself useful (for awhile) anyway. There were some good dialogues and cutscenes, and it added to the investment in your character.

I'll be interested to see how much they add to all this in the expansion.

i'm confused. what is neutral good then? doesn't that mean you are good and you are not driven in your actions by either the law or your own will to do whatever you want? if lawful is on one end which is obvious like you said a paladin, than the other end is not just a casual lawbreaker but one who does it with maybe good intentions but is still blurly. i guess robin hood could be seen as a chaotic good. but personally i detest theives and in real life stealing from the rich to feed the poor is all too simple and unconcious way of looking at things. i too am somewhat chaotic and believe that all laws should not just be blatently followed, but like i said i think that that is neutral. to me though if someone were truly chaotic they wouldn't think at all an just react. that is why i see it as being very difficult to be good and a harbinger of chaos. often ones person 'chaos' can be quite upsetting to others around, like Acleacius mentioned - speeding, or how about tailgating, or playing incensently loud music. all of those things may not evil, but they definitely aren't good either. i could understand choosing chaotic good over lawful good maybe if those were the only two options…aw will admit chaotic good 'sounds' the best

Actually, that's my reason, totally, c.u. Along with the fact that where games use alignment shifts, I can't play True Neutral because every time you finish a quest where you've helped someone it shifts you to good. Chaotic Good is kind of a fence-sitter for quest purposes—as long as you don't want to go the complete rape, pillage and sneer route, which is reserved for Immature Evil.

Neutral Good characters believe in Good above all else. What you're saying is probably about right though, I don't consider myself Chatoic in real life. More Chaotic than Lawful, though. I probably just scrape over the line into Good from Neutral as well. I am willing to make small sacrifices ot help others when the chance arises. I might end up in the gate-town to the plane between CG and NG, lol.